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Monday, August 8, 2016

Before he dives deep into Blade Runner 2,
Denis Villeneuve is splashing around in the science fiction pool with the alien
invasion drama Arrival. We still don’t know a ton about the picture,
but we’ve got our first look at stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner thanks to two
new photos.

USA Today revealed the images, and though they don’t show
much, it’s enough to pique our interest. (And maybe Lois Lane and Hawkeye can bridge
this divisive Marvel/DC gap.)

Adams looks grubby and disheveled, world-weary and beaten
down, which seems like a reasonable response to an alien invasion. She’s got a
lot on her mind. And that certainly is an ominous oblong object looming in the
background, though Adams doesn’t appear terribly concerned, so perhaps this has
become a common sight in these times.

Renner delivers the obligatory sci-fi
concerned-star-staring-concernedly-at-something-concerning-in-the-distance look.
My guess is that whatever he’s gawking at has something to do with aliens. A
bold statement, I know.

Based on Ted Chiang’s novella The Story of Your
Life, Arrival follows a linguist, Louise (Amy
Adams), who, after aliens arrive, is tasked with deciphering their language,
and her quest reshapes how she views our world. This is thoughtful, esoteric
science fiction, and is certainly fertile thematic territory for Sicario
director to root around in.

She felt real, like somebody I would know and somebody I
would like to have a conversation with. Emotionally, the journey she takes
in this was devastating to me.

Any Denis Villeneuve movie is worth getting stoked about, the
fact that it’s sci-fi—and that we’re in for a double helping of the genre with Blade
Runner 2—only sweetens the deal.

Amy Adams praised Arrival’s unique special
effects, while Jeremy Renner invoked the names Stanley Kubrick and StevenSpielberg while discussing the film. He also teased that this is not your
typical alien invasion movie where outsiders arrive on the scene and wreck up
the joint. All of this is quite promising indeed.

Arrival arrives on November 11, and you
can bet I’m going to be all up in its business until then.